The International Institute for Holocaust Research

Towards the end of November 1941, the Nazi authorities began to deport the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia (the Protectorate) to the fortress city of Theresienstadt, about 60 km north of Prague. The city’s 18th century fortress now served as a ghetto. Thousands of deportees were housed in the army barracks under terrible conditions. By depicting Theresienstadt as a "model of Jewish settlement" and thus concealing its role as a transit camp for Jewish deportees, the Nazis were able to camouflage their true objectives and policies namely, the mass annihilation of the Jews.
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Commencing in January 1942, transports began to leave Theresienstadt for Riga. Later, some of the transports were sent to extermination camps and murder sites, including Auschwitz, Treblinka and Maly Trostenets.

At the Wannsee Conference on January 20 1942, Head of the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office) Reinhard Heydrich announced that Hitler had authorized the evacuation of the Jewish population in Europe to the East. Heydrich added that the evacuation of the Reich’s Jews would be given priority because of housing problems and other socio-political considerations. Jews over the age of 65, war invalids, or Jews decorated with the Iron Cross would be sent to the newly established “old people’s ghetto” – Theresienstadt.

On 6 March, following Heydrich’s announcement, Adolf Eichmann, Director of the Department of Jewish and Dispossession Affairs (Department IVB4) in the RSHA, convened a meeting of Gestapo delegates from all over the Reich to discuss the measures necessary to carry out the deportation of 55,000 Jews from Germany and the Protectorate. Eichmann stressed not to include elderly Jews in the transports. Jews of this category would be deported to Theresienstadt. Eichmann also warned the Gestapo not to notify the Jews in advance about their deportation in order to prevent attempts to elude the transport.

On 15 May 1942, Department IVB4 issued new guidelines signed by Gestapo Head Heinrich Müller, regarding the deportation of Jews to the “old people’s” ghetto in Theresienstadt: The evacuation of the residents from old age homes was cited as the top priority. Jews of foreign nationality or those enrolled in the war industry were exempt from deportation.

Due to the Wehrmacht’s preparation for its summer offensive in southern Russia (Operation Blue), the Reichsbahn directorate in Berlin would not allocate special deportation trains with a capacity of 1,000 people during the period between 15 June and 10 July. New orders specified that Jews would be deported in a single rail car with a capacity of 50 people. The car would be attached to a regular passenger train. During 1942, small transports of 50 Jews departed only from Berlin and Munich. The deportees were permitted to bring a sum of 50 Reichmarks, a suitcase, a full set of clothes, suitable shoes, bedding, tableware and food supplies for eight days.

In the month of June 1942 the Gestapo launched ten relatively small transports from Munich, consisting of 500 Jews altogether.

This transport departed from Munich on June 23 1942 and arrived a day later in Theresienstadt. The transport consisted of 50 elderly Jews, all of whom were living in the Milbertshofen assembly camp prior to their deportation.

The Gestapo had forced Munich’s Jewish community to assist with organizing the transports. A card index with the names and addresses of all Munich’s Jews existed in triplicate at the Aryanization department, the office of the Jewish community and at Munich’s Gestapo headquarters. This index was used to assemble the different transports. The Gestapo determined the criteria of the transports based upon age, ability to work and other factors. About a week before the planned transport, the Gestapo instructed the Jewish community to inform the victims of their forthcoming “evacuation” to Theresienstadt.

The community also had to finance the transports, provide food for the deportees and pay helpers to deal with the luggage. One or two days before the deportation, the deportees who were not already living in the Milbertshofen assembly camp were picked up from their apartments by the Gestapo in large, closed removal vans and taken to the assembly camp. This usually took place during the night or in the early morning. In Milbertshofen they stayed for a day or two. They were searched and their last valuables were confiscated. The deportees had to endure bureaucratic procedures and undergo the final stages of expropriation. Their declarations of property were collected and they were informed that because they were “enemies of the Reich” their assets had been seized.

On June 23, the day of deportation, they were woken up and had to leave the assembly camp in Milbertshofen in the morning. Every transport was accompanied by Gestapo members and members of the uniformed police.

Closed furniture trucks or buses were used to transport the Jews approximately 10 kilometers from the assembly camp to the train stations where the transports departed for Theresienstadt. These were Munich’s central train station and the freight train station located in the Munich-Laim district. It is still disputed whether the majority of transports left from Munich’s central station or from Munich Laim station. Historian Andreas Heusler argues that the majority left from the central station, but several testimonies indicate otherwise.

At the station, one second-class passenger car awaited them. The deportees were ordered to board the train, usually at around 9 in the morning. If it left from Munich central station the car was connected to a regular, scheduled passenger train that left Munich every day at around 12 for Marktredwitz. The car was then attached to several other local passenger trains in succession and travelled via Moosach, Freising, Landshut, Regensburg, Schwandorf, Marktredwitz, Eger, Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) and Usti nad Labem (Aussig) to Bohusovice (Bauschowitz), where it finally arrived a day later. If it left from Munich Laim freight station, the car would have been shunted to Munich central station, from where the procedure would be as above. The deportees were taken off the train at Bohusovice station and forced by the awaiting SS personnel and Czech gendarmerie to walk the approximate 3 km to Theresienstadt, carrying their backpacks. Only people who were unable to walk were taken in trucks.

The transport was given the reference II/8 in the Theresienstadt ghetto listings where the Roman numeral II refers to Munich. In Theresienstadt many of the elderly Jewish deportees who had arrived on these transports died of hunger and disease during the summer months. Others were transferred in the following months to extermination camps in the East where they were murdered.

Martha Goldschmidt, born 9 February 1869, was on this transport. From April 1939 she lived in the Jewish community’s retirement home in Munich, at Kaulbachstrasse 65. In March 1942 she was taken to the Milbertshofen assembly camp and was deported to Theresienstadt three months later. Martha Goldschmidt arrived in Theresienstadt at the age of 73 and died on 13 January 1945, three weeks before her 76th birthday and less than four months before the liberation. The following lines are an excerpt from a letter her grandson Franz Gerlach wrote to his sister in England in November 1945.

“Granny had moved to the Jewish old-age home in Munich, where in the beginning she had it quite good. Yet slowly but surely the living conditions deteriorated for the so-called “Sternjuden” [lit. “Star Jews”, Jews who had to wear the yellow star]. Mommy did not have to wear a yellow star because she was married to an Aryan and the marriage resulted in non-Jewish children. The old age home became crowded with 4, 6, and 8 people sharing one room. The food became more and more scarce and finally they had to get ready for the transport to Poland and Czechoslovakia. This meant that the homes had to be cleared (to make way for SS child-breeding institutions). So, at Easter in 1942 granny moved to the assembly camp at Milbertshofen near Munich where she had to live in labour barracks, with 24 in beds one on top of each other with people aged between 65 and 90.

The Younger detainees were sent to Poland, Estonia last winter […]. No news has arrived from them anymore. They were probably all killed. Some of the older “privileged” people went “only” to Theresienstadt near Prague, where they were housed in fairly convenient accommodations. But we had no prior knowledge of this because for many Theresienstadt was only a transit camp to Auschwitz and the other gassing sites.

So Granny was in Milbertshofen and had to work 5 hours a day in the kitchen with every 4th day off. On that day off she walked over 2 ½ hours to visit us and in the evening went back to the camp. She was always in a good mood and sprightly […] Unfortunately her “luck” did not last very long. On June 22 1942 she was transported to Theresienstadt. How Granny went through those last days before her departure, her whole attitude during those days and weeks was simply heroic […) ]

On the way she was able to write us a card and reported how nice the trip was and that the Gestapo did not take away her few belongings (everyone was only allowed to take 30 kg (all other property, money, jewellery, furniture etc. was confiscated by the Reich) and that we should not lose our courage. For her part she said she would try to hold on and once again return to Munich. After that we did not hear anything from Granny for over a year. Then we received a card with her signature confirming that she had received our first small parcel – everything else was pre-printed. Afterwards the postal service eased a little bit, we were allowed to write a postcard every 3 months. Granny was able to write every 4 to 5 months […] The last card from Granny was dated December 8 1944 and arrived in mid-January 1945. Then we did not hear anything more until mid-June when the few survivors from Theresienstadt were transported back to Munich. Sadly our beloved Granny was not among them. A woman […] informed us that Granny had broken her leg in mid-December. She was admitted to the hospital but died from pneumonia and malnutrition. From the bottom of my heart I would have given anything to see her return to us in triumph.”
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